LAND OF THE GIANTS-The Inside Rail, Chamber of Fear, The Mechanical Man

Fitzhugh and Barry are watching horses race around a track. Fitz gets carried away with the race and runs onto the track only to be nearly trampled by the horses as they pass overhead. Barry runs out and gets him back to the rial, angered by Fitz's desire to bet. Fitz laments that he hasn't been near a race track since they left LA. Dan has collected horse hair and hopes none of the others have an allergy to horses. He tells this to Steve, then sneezes. Fitzhugh tries to tell Barry he was engaging him in neglected education--higher math which he claims is what the races involve. As Barry tries to figure out a problem, a giant race track bum named Moley--walks directly over them. Fitz pulls Barry behind a discarded shoe box. They duck behind it as Moley seems to look right down at them and reaches down.

Act One

The bum picks up a cigarette butt and smokes it, leaving. Coming out of hiding, Fitzhugh finds a fallen ticket on the next race--Saltzbury, a horse he would bet on anyway, "his horse."He tells Barry they can bribe officials and get a watchmaker to build him a bike. This is good since Barry didn't know what he'd do with a bike 40 feet high. Mark thinks the horse hair will make a good high intensity cable if Val can braid it. Val tells the men and Betty that she used to watch her grandfather braid horsehair lariats. Despite Val and Mark's defense of Fitzhugh, Steve and Dan, who know Fitzhugh well, have them search for the boy and the man. Fitzhugh's horse wins and he has the bum Moley cash it in. Moley has never heard of little people but Fitz misjudges giant nature (noting that it is not human nature). Moley, confronted by Track Security Chief Rivers, turns Fitz in to the bullying giant (who wants nothing but the reward for their capture). Steve and Dan distract the giant long enough for Fitz and Barry to escape. Steve warns Fitz to stay hidden in a stable or he'll ground him to the ship for a month. Dan and he leave to find the others while Rivers calls his men, telling them, "Little people are loose on the race track grounds."He has them plug all holes in the fences. The girls and Mark see a billy-goat that reminds Val of Fitzhugh. A sergeant drops a wooden block in front of them as they prepare to go through a hole in the fence. He grabs Mark and deposits him in a paper bag, then chases the two girls and drops his hat over them!

Act Two

Rivers isn't happy--he tells his units there are four more little peopleat large. Fitz complains to Barry who agrees with Fitzhugh that Steve did think he was talking to a child when he was talking to Fitzhugh. Instead of threatening Steve (Fitz claims to have a cousin's brother in law who is an administrative assistant to a senator who will haul Burton into court), Barry tells Fitzhugh he is going to thank him for saving them from Rivers. A stable man brings in a horse Fitzhugh admires--Mannekin. Fitz chastises Barry for not recognizing a great horse at his age. Fitz goes to his stall to see it followed by a hood in a suit. The stable groom comes in and kicks the hood out but the horse gets excited, kicking. The metal bridle falls off a hook and traps Fitz beneath it. Barry runs in, gets a stick at Fitz's prodding, but it breaks and he falls. Steve and Dan joking around, ride the saddle pad, carried by the groom man, into the Tack Room. They had seen Mark and the women captured. The groom opens a drawer where Mark and the girls are taped down by masking tape. The sergeant, in a good mood because he thinks he is getting a bonus for finding them, kicks the groom out and brushes a spider away from the drawer with a ruler. Mark comments, "Aren't we lucky to have him guarding us--he's got a heart as big as Mt. Rushmore."Val says, "Yea and probably made of the same stuff--solid granite."Below, Steve jokes about taking the giant, Dan saying, "Right, we'll tackle him. You grab him around the shoelaces and I'll jump up and down on his big toe."Steve tells Dan a particular good luck charm (not Dan's unlucky rabbit's foot he once had) will aide them: a horseshoe trophy hanging directly over the Sergeant's head as he sits and reads. Barry hooks a belt around the bridle and Mannequins's rope, causing the horse to rear up with a shout, freeing Fitzhugh. Dan climbs up to the horseshoe and pushes on the Sergeant's head, nearly falling with it. They free the other three, Val vowing she will never use fly paper again when she gets back to Earth. A giant rooster towers over the drawer and all five of them!

Act Three

Dan feeds the giant rooster some popcorn that the sergeant dropped. They get up onto the top of the small table and the men toss a paint stirrer at it. Rivers rushes inside and orders, "Hold it! You little pests, don't you move or I'll squash you like bugs!"They are stopped in their tracks until the rooster flies up at him, probably attacking them again. They run to the back of the counter--which is attached to the tabletop--but not for long as the giants move the table top away from the slim counter. Steve has to jump across when the giants do this--the rooster below what seems like a great ravine. Dan and Mark pull him up because he didn't quite make it onto the ledge. The girls find a rat hole which everyone just makes it into, with Mark saying, "Let's just hope that no one's home."Rivers sticks his hand at them, then a stick, leaving it on the ledge when he figures the rat hole can run for miles away and out. From a bench side, Fitz order Moley to bet on Mannekin in the 5th. The five little people use the stick--the paint stirrer--to cross the abyss between ledge and table. Val almost falls. Fitz breaks his former promise to Barry and Steve but he prompts Barry into not telling Steve. When the hood returns to hypo Mannekin with a needle full of slow down juice, Fitz places a match in his shoes and lights it on fire!

Act Four

The hood gasps in pain before he can needle the horse. The groom arrives and uses a pitchfork to takes the hood out to security. The hood drops the incriminating needle and it lands right near Barry and Fitz. While Fitz watches the race, Dan comes and finds Barry; the others arrive, Fitz returns, yelling that he has won. Then he stops, "Mark, ladies, I was so worried about you."Mark frowns, "We noticed that, Fitzhugh."Dan threatens to carry Fitz out with Mark's help when the con man wants to stay to collect his winnings. Steve has Fitz tell Moley to report them to Rivers and the two little men watch as Rivers makes Moley change clothes with him, Fitzhugh amused that Steve knew this would happen. Steve tells him, "My dear Watson, that's exactly what I would have done."Rivers chases the goat again and inside the stable tries to grab Fitzhugh. The other men jab the needle into his ankle. Everyone gets out of the stable including a half fainted Rivers. While Betty tells Val she is right--the goat does remind one slightly of Fitzhugh, the con man sneaks off. Steve chases him along the white fence, "I've had it with you---I'm going to..."Fitz yells, "You're going to what...?"Rivers stumbles out near them, calling all units!

Tag

The goat rams Rivers from behind and sends him running off. "You should've put your money on the goat,"Steve laughs. They run to the unblocked hole where the others get out. Also where Moley drops money down to Fitzhugh; the giant bet on a horse in the 7th race and won. Steve talks to Fitzhugh into leaving the giant money. Fitz says, "Somebody up there doesn't like horse players."Following Steve through the hole, he does leave it.

Review: This was the first second season episode filmed and would have made a good way to begin the season; however it is a lighter story than most and it contains some of the funniest lines in the entire series. The new theme and credits were terrific. For some reason when this episode was rerun on a now defunct local UHF station on Long Island (Channel 68 here) it ran with the first season theme song over the first season opening credit visuals! (?) As an aside, RETURN OF INIDU had the sound of the second season theme song but played over the visuals of the first season! Other strange things have happened during GIANT's reruns. For instance, once when INIDU was rerun, it was back tracked--at the point when Inidu is about to unknowingly drink the poison---the commercial break airs, then we go all the way back to when Inidu leaves the house and the villain appears for the first time!

The end theme for many of the second season episodes is the first season theme song ending. This changes about half way through the second season when a recut second theme is used for closing. Conway, Arngrim, Marshall, and Krazner had their second season opening credit shots taken from this episode. The rest came fromA PLACE CALLED EARTH. New outfits appear for Mark (a brown leather jacket over a black long sleeve sweater), the girls, and Barry (a yellow sweater over a button down light colored shirt, and greenish trousers). Val wore a sleeveless blue jacket over a yellow long sleeved shirt and a checkered blue and yellow skirt with blue boots. Betty now wore a tan vest-jacket over a bluish aqua top with a tan skirt. It was completed with tan boots. Richard Shapiro is to be credited for writing Barry as more mature and somewhat older. Barry certainly looked it. He was somewhat wiser to Fitzhugh's childish ways. He also was subtle in some of his banter with the con man; somewhat sarcastic at other times. His answers to Fitzhugh were well placed and biting but not in a disrespectful way. He still cares about the man as seen when he tells Fitzhugh that he doesn't owe his life to him when he really did. Barry, here, seemed to be telling Fitzhugh how to act properly--their roles reversed somewhat as Barry was growing up. Harry Geller's music here was original with some brief inspired and clever variations on previous Williams bits (especially just after the horseshoe falls on the Sergeant and Steve lets the others know he's there on top the drawer). Some music sounded like bits used on TV's Batman (especially the King Tut episodes). This story, while having a few brief silly parts, has many fine moments, teeming with great dialogue ("don't worry if it falls we'll be camped up here for the winter.") The racetrack gave a different feel to the show and was a nice, new setting when compared to most other episodes. Splitting up the cast for a majority of the story helped give everyone a meaty role. Vic Tayback, the hood here, played Mel in the TV sitcom version of ALICE. Arch Johnson played in many television roles including a rare series called CAMP RUNAMUCK. John Harmon was in STAR TREK'S CITY ON THE EDGE OF FOREVER. Shapiro also wrote an episode of COMBAT entitled GULLIVER. This stars Stefan Arngrim, before GIANTS, and was a well written and acted color episode of the last season of COMBAT. It garnered high acclaim at the Cannes Film Festival as did Stefan's excellent acting as a small semi-villain. This episode takes place entirely during the daytime. I found this one a delight, not at all as silly as LOST IN SPACE became, but a fresh change from the darker aspects of GIANTS and lots of fun. That aside, there were also some hair raising sequences such as the attack on the girls and Mark by the sergeant and later the threat to them by Rivers. The scene where Steve jumps across the gap between counter and table is stupendous. I also liked the idea that Barry had to save someone for a change---even yelling loudly, something he hadn't really done since DOUBLE CROSS. I do wish they could have shown more shots of Fitzhugh with Mannekin all in one frame but the racetrack shot of all the horses running over Fitzhugh is superb even by today's standards.

CHAMBER OF FEAR

Production Number:

Filmed: (28)

First Aired:11-16-1969 (35)

SYNOPSIS

Teaser

Lost at night in a slum-like area, Fitzhugh and Valerie hide from Deenar inside a pipe. Deenar uses his German Shepard, a baseball thrown into the pipe, and banging cans together to try to get them to come out. He claims nothing will happen to them; Val comments, "We've heard that song before."Fitzhugh lures Deenar away from Val but is captured by the giant who tells him he will be a model.

ACT ONE

Several nights of searching prove fruitless. Dan and Mark seem to cast blame toward Val. Inside Jolo's Wax Museum, Steve, Dan, Val, and Mark see Fitzhugh on a table. Jolo is fighting with Deenar and causes Fitz to fall off. It is only a statue made by Deenar. They follow him to his studio. As Deenar is nagged by his wife Mara, Fitz tries to escape but Deenar stops him. Mara, Jolo, and Deenar have stolen a diamond. Now all three disagree on how to cut it and split it among them. Jolo has hidden it somewhere in his museum. Steve and Dan offer to find it if Deenar will then free Fitz. Deenar notices, "You want your friend as bad as I want the diamond."He agrees. Steve and Dan prepare to go but spy on Deenar who drops Fitz into a can of molding clay---and he covers it. Fitz knew his friends would come. The two pilots do not see Deenar tie the dog under the table to guard Fitz because they left and sent Val and Mark to hunt in the museum. Dan comments Deenar looks like he has just poisoned a reservoir and is waiting for someone to take a drink. Steve says, "Let's go take a drink."They go in to the vent and get out into the room--only to be blocked by the dog, only inches away from them both!

ACT TWO

Dan "makes friends with the dog", distracting it long enough for Steve to climb up a lamp cord, hook the rope to the table, and climb across. The dog, his teeth showing, still blocks Steve. Dan climbs up while the captain distracts it. A Monk statue walks straight up to Val and Mark---a black cat activated the mechanism. The cat is named Malin and is Jolo's. Val searches inside a cannibal statue, slips and falls, nearly strangling herself. She screams for Mark.

ACT THREE

Mark leaves a witch statue to help her down. Deenar keeps Jolo busy in his office, discussing the diamond cutting. Dan manages to hook the dog leash to a rope, keeping the beast away from the can Fitz is choking in. Val falls again---inside a Viking statue. She ventures outside and sees the cat atop the Viking's shoulder but it jumps off. The jump causes the sword in the Viking's upraised hand to fall---nearly killing a running Val, mere inches from her. The giants come in, Jolo searching but not finding anything. Deenar blames the cat. Val tells Mark, who finds her and thinks she's had enough, that she wants to continue because they must help Fitz. Steve hoists Dan by rope into the clay can--and both Dan and Fitz sink into it. In the Monk, Val falls YET AGAIN and hits a lever which gets stuck in the on position. The Monk begins walking while Mark is climbing on the beams. Mark falls onto a turning wheel mechanisms, and is knocked unconscious. Val manages to hoist

herself between the wheels before they can crush Mark's head but she cannot hold out this way for long.

ACT FOUR

Neither Val nor Betty, at the Spindrift (and called by Val), can reach Steve or Dan. Val sends Betty to a house where the people moved out yesterday to call the police. Betty asks if it is wise that the police come and Val yells, "It's Mark's life! Now hurry!"While Barry monitors Val, Betty runs to the house, phones the police but they do not seem to believe her. Dan gets Fitz out of the clay. Barry updates Valerie but she tosses the radio down. Steve, Dan, and Fitz hear her scream to them upon re-entering the wax museum. They help her and Mark, who, looking up after awakening, spots the diamond hidden high up inside the web like beams of the statue. Despite a warning from Steve, Fitz climbs up and takes it while the others, not watching him, wait at the foot of the statue's curtains to go--for the three giants arrive to continue their debate over the diamond. Jolo discovers it missing as Fitzhugh returns with it to the others. Jolo starts to knock over statue after statue using a sword to make Deenar tell the truth. Fitzhugh sneezes and drops the diamond just as Deenar reveals that little people are involved. The three giants spot them all!

TAG

Steve snaps at Val to get to the door and she goes, holding back the giants by threatening to toss the diamond right out the window. He tells them all they want to do is get out and he'll put the diamond at the door if the giants let them leave. Mara urges Jolo, who is still holding the sword, to get him. Deenar warns them, "No. He'll keep his word!"The little people run to the door area as a policeman arrives, summoned by Betty's call. Steve tosses the diamond to the giant policeman, telling him that the giants stole it, and the five little people run under the door and out onto the street. The cop holds the three criminals. Steve still has to pull Fitzhugh away from going back yet again for the diamond. Fitzhugh feels they can get the diamond home some day and he wants to be rich. Steve says, "Yeah, some day. Let's get ourselves home first."

REVIEW

Once in awhile, separating the cast was a good idea, although Betty and Barry only have brief cameos in only the last act (and were underused for most of the rest of the series). Heather looked pregnant in this episode. As in THE INSIDE RAIL, Barry is now calling all the adults except Fitzhugh by their first names. At times, he will revert to using their last names or titles--mostly with Steve, calling him captain but rarely with Mark. The real problem with this action oriented episode is that Valerie is made to look clumsy, stupid, helpless, and careless. She falls three times and even though the statues were difficult to climb (and they sure did look it thanks to a great set), Val still looked the dumbest than she ever did before. The early Valerie was a bit reckless and carefree but not in the manner she is in CHAMBER OF FEAR. Val wears the yellow top with her checkered skirt. That jacket was off throughout the episode. Steve is again showing his care for Fitzhugh when he tells the other three that he will wait for him while they leave while Fitzhugh is climbing to get the diamond, even after Steve warned him not to do this. Fitz's bravery is shown when he tells Val he will distract the giant long enough for Val to get away in the opening sequence. Again, he is very different from Dr. Smith on LOST IN SPACE, who rarely, if ever, acted in a self sacrificing manner. Arthur Weiss, involved in TV in the past with the series THE FUGITIVE, hardly gave this episode any of that series' flair or conflict. Admitting that, this is an enjoyable episode if you can get past the helpless female cliche and male prejudice. Then again, this is a land of giants---who, male or female, would fair as well as Valerie Scott did. A note on Steve's character is made when Deenar, a sneakily, coward can even admit that Steve would keep his word and be sincere. Richard LaSalle's music was used, production order wise, for the first time and mingled with Leith Steven's music from THE CHASE and THE LOST ONES. LaSalle's music is very different, yet it fits LAND OF THE GIANTS well. It is more subtle than all the previous themes. It conveys a lighter, less grim feeling to the second season. In contrast to that, this episode has a real gothic atmosphereto it in the wax museum setting but throughout. Music from DEADLY LODESTONE was also re-used many times in season two and it contains a very serious sound throughout--with a short five second burst of goofy music (sounding very like some goofy Dr. Smith score from almost any LOST IN SPACE season two and three episode). This can be heard when Fitzhugh climbs up the statue. Also, it is used a few times in SIX HOURS TO LIVE, another good re-mix of previous music. Cary, among many other credits, was Merlin in THE TIME TUNNEL and was also in WONDER WOMAN in the episode DEATH IN DISGUISE. He also appeared in a HUNTER segment in the 80s. One really terrific moment was when the statue started moving with Val and Mark inside--the music sounded a bit different as it started out--almost had a bell like echo effect--at the same time Dan and Fitzhugh were under clay and a giant dog was hounding Steve on the table top! All this was going on and as a child watching this, I can remember great enjoyment derived from the cliffhanging type of moments all this action gave us. I also enjoyed the banter between Dan and Steve in this episode as they try to figure out Deenar, then figure a way to get past the dog. And that moment when Valerie and Mark first spot the statue of that Monk--a very scary figure (and played by a live actor, not a real statue)---and it walks right up to them--is classic LAND OF THE GIANTS. It made Val and Mark look so helpless before a giant moving object, massive and approaching from out of the darkness---you could almost feel their fear and helplessness--but this time, the helplessness fit in perfectly without changing their personalities or making them look stupid and inept. Again, this argument can be challenged: anyone would look helpless in the LAND OF THE GIANTS--there are such tremendous difficulties to overcome. The Monk at the door scene is really very atmospheric. For once, the giant, Deenar was cowardly and somewhat interesting and Jolo was a very good threat---until he actually meets the little people--he really does nothing when he finally sees them. Mara was just...well, the less said the better---she really made me feel sympathy for Deenar. Maybe, that is why is was in the episode!

A good story but not great, Weiss wrote much better for other series, I am sure.

THE MECHANICAL MAN

Production Number:

Filmed: (29)

First Aired: 9-21-1969 (27)

TEASER

On a dark night, Fitzhugh, Mark (wearing a brown leather jacket), and Steve hide from the tallest giant they've ever seen. He wrecks a drug store, causes a fire, then kills a special policeman--who shoots him three times with no effect. Fitzhugh runs, afraid they are being watched from a window. Mark runs after him--and both are captured by another, smaller giant named Professor Altoph Gorn--who drops his hat over them.

ACT ONE

Steve calls Betty who is in the cockpit of Spindrift. She calls the others inside. Steve asks for Dan and Val to come to the area, warning that police will be all over the place, then Steve follows Gorn. Betty and Barry monitor the SID channels. Dan and Val hear Captain Ray call to some Inspector, blaming the little people for breaking the dead policeman's neck! He figures they were after medicine in the drugstore. When Val asks if Steve was planning on going to a drugstore, Dan tells her no and adds, "And he wouldn't even think of killing a man."The tall giant walks through the forest just as Chipper falls into quicksand. As Barry watches, the giant saves the thankful dog. The giant walks off, leaving Barry to clean Chipper. Steve arrives at Gorn's isolated, old house-lab and tells Dan to meet him there just three blocks due west. He uses the electronic telescope which rises up to a window to allow him to view the tall giant working out on gym equipment with an almost hypnotic stare. Gorn needs help from a scientist to perfect the man--who is a super giant robot. He tells Mark and Fitz his government will give them its gratitude. Mark tells him, "We've had ample proof of your government's gratitude."Gorn introduces himself as having come from Polk Institute. Mark tells him, "I'm Mark Wilson, Cal Tech, and MIT designer and consultant of Space Technology."When Gorn asks what Fitz does, Mark comments, "What the rest of us do--he fights for survival."Steve tells Dan and Val about the new giant while Dan uses the thermal gun to drill a hole into a plaster inner wall. Mark offers Gorn a theory about the adrenalin gland, which a disbelieving Gorn tests on Fitzhugh by dropping a possum into the cage with the man. Gorn makes his aide, Zoral, poke Fitzhugh with a pencil to make him move.Drilling into a storeroom from the inner wall, the other three hear Fitz's blood curdling screams!

ACT TWO

Fitzhugh gets out of the cage's spring door and collapses. The others come out of the storeroom, putting the cut piece of wall back in place. Steve allows an asking Valerie to go with he and Dan into the main lab. The scientists tested Fitz's blood. Mark tells Fitz, "You lose more blood when you cut yourself shaving."Val and Steve look at Fitzhugh through the telescope device when the giants show Mark more diagrams in their office. An SID man shows up and stupidly suspects nothing, despite bullet holes in the hypnotic man's clothes, and leaves. Steve warns Betty for she and Barry to stay at the ship due to an SID dragnet. Another test on the robot ends in failure: it breaks free of its chains (dropping pieces near Dan, Val, and Steve), knocks Gorn down, and steps on the one man cage Gorn dropped---with Mark inside!

ACT THREE

Dan checks as the giants bring Mark to the office. The other two alert Fitz to their presence. Gorn promises Mark that if he fixes the hydraulic man, he will do everything to get them back to Earth. Mark finds a leakage inside the robot's chest unit and tapes it up. The power inside is enough to light up a small town. They test Mark's work by making the robot pick up Fitzhugh and hold him in the air. Steve says, "Mark is too much. Give him some tools and he can fix anything."Gorn ignores Mark's urgent pleas for the giant to keep his word---what about his promise to help them get back to Earth?

ACT FOUR

Fitz tells Mark not to lose hope, "Steve is here with Dan and Valerie. We're not finished yet."Gorn invites Secretary Mek of the Supreme Council to a test before dawn, Mek wanting to have a second hydraulic man made. Fitz, with Valerie's help, creates a major diversion so Mark, with Dan and Steve's help, can build a new control unit. Val gets the giants to chase her into the office from behind a cabinet. They catch her when she hides in a storage box. Fitz, with prompting from a drink, stalls with lies which the giants write down. Fitz blames Betty for the destruction of a munitions dump near the airport (which was done by the Force for Freedom). He claims Dan could not be executed on Earth for his many crimes because no one could catch him and tells them Betty is the most ruthless of them all. He tells Gorn they left him behind since he is not a scientist or a murderer and that they left the girl behind because she pleaded for his life. Fitz avoids signing their notes and their questions about their hiding place by acting drunk. Val salutes him for his performance later on when they are put back in the big cage. Inside the robot's chest, the three men set in their own control when Mek arrives. The robot begins working out and they fall all over...their control isn't working!

TAG

Steve finds a loose wire allowing Mark to connect it. Their control cuts in and the robot is under their power. It lets Fitz and Val go, then allows the three men to jump out. Mark sends the robot to its destruction. It attacks the giants and corners Gorn. Val gasped, "Mark, you've got to stop it!"However, Mark's unit couldn't work after he and the robot was too far apart. Mek and Zoral escape but Gorn is killed and the robot destroyed. Back at camp, Barry stares into the campfire after Mr. Fitzhugh told him about the robot. Fitz tries to cheer him up and explain about, "the monster, created by a madman, bent on torture and murder."Barry tells him the robot saved Chipper's life. Fitz claims, "I guess I don't know what I'm talking about, I mean--not exactly."Barry smiles and Fitzhugh tells him it is time for bed.

REVIEW: An entertaining episode made more than routine by the contribution of Broderick Crawford who made Gorn a multi layered, crusty, untrustworthy Dr. Frankenstein type. The so called robot seemed to be part levers and pulleys, part computerized, part hydraulic. Val wore her blue jacket again and is much more amiable, even asking Steve to go with he and Dan, instead of just staying behind. In the past, if she had to stay behind, she wouldn't ask to go along---she'd simply break the rules, disobey orders, and follow anyway! The effects and camera work are extremely well done. The sequences with Mark in the smaller one man cage which can attach to the bigger cage is very good. At times, when it is held by Gorn, we can see it move slowly--as if it really were dangling in the air. The sequence where Mark talks to Gorn and Zoral from behind a small glass-plastic (?) partition as they are in the office is also well filmed, with lots of adequate special effects going on. The possum attack on Fitzhugh was great FX. The full wall body panel can be seen in many other Irwin Allen shows--among these are LOST IN SPACE's CONDEMNED OF SPACE and THE LOST CIVILIZATION, VOYAGE TO THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA's THE CYBORG, and TIME TUNNEL's RAIDERS FROM OUTER SPACE. Some robots used today really do use hydraulics. The cockpit control room in Spindrift was very well lit and a rarely seen cross beam (with lights on it) is viewed. The control room would be seen only a few more times. The passenger compartment, not seen since THE FLIGHT PLAN, is never seen again. The total Richard LaSalle score was used throughout the episode and is very nice. The end theme song was the first season end theme song, mixed to a shorter version of the first season opening theme song. The step stool here leads to a flat giant stone which leads to the doorway into and out of Spindrift. If Mark could fix everything, as Steve bragged, why couldn't he fix the Spindrift? The stupid policeman not only doesn't see Fitzhugh in a cage covered by a sheet but he doesn't spot the three bullet holes in the giant robot's clothes and the robot is said to be one of Gorn's aides who is resting while thinking out a problem--staring like a zombie. Oh, well, the cop figures and then leaves! While the belief that the little people could break a giant's neck goes along with the way the blame the earthlings in the past, it is a bit much to think they'd believe a little person could break a giant's neck! Thus, Mek had to be in the story for the authorities to see that it probably wasn't them. Judging from past experience it could either way that Mek would relay this truth to the authorities. The whole belief does fit in nicely with the we'll-believe-any-propaganda set up in SABOTAGE and mentioned in SHELL GAME. This episode like CHAMBER OF FEAR takes place entirely at night. Betty gets another reduced role back at the ship's radio while Barry had just a little more to do--and the character's sensitivity is explored briefly. He and Fitz share a scene at the end furthering the characterizations. The musical bit when Chipper is in the quicksand sounds a great deal like a variation on some cuts from Bernard Herrman's THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL music. Stuart Margolin is now directing and has directed episodes of the fantastic Canadian series NEON RIDER including the two hour pilot. (NEON RIDER is about a former psychologist-writer who changes his ways when he inherits a ranch from an uncle--and he then takes in a load of juvenile delinquents, handicapped children, and other problem kids--helping out on the ranch instead of in the city. Winston Reckart of ADDERLY fame, played Mike Terry through sixall-too-short seasons. A realistic, well meaning, action packed series with meaning and love.)